Booth as seen in SC

[Rhatkinson]

As some may know, I am from South Carolina. I was curious to see how the assassination played in SC newspapers. There's a great website called newspapers.com that have thousands of papers archived from as far back a the 18th century. Unfortunately, the only two papers from SC date back only to the 1880's.

However, I was able to find some interesting articles related to the assassination:

1. This is an article detailing the release of the film "The Prisoner of Shark Island" about Dr. Mudd in the 1920's. To say the article is sympathetic to Mudd is an understatement. He was called "a martyr to his countrymen's frenzy and hate."
   

2. An article from the 1883 collapse of Ford's when it was used as a government office building. Jim Garrett told me that the presidential box was boarded up but not removed when the government turned the theater into an office. Does anyone have any information about this?
   

3. An article on actor EA Emerson's trunk being located in the 1920's which contained his recollections of the assassination (Emerson was acting in the play.) It mentions a program from the play with blood in the corner of it that Emerson noted could have been Lincoln's or Rathbone's. Does anyone know of the present location of this relic?
   

4. An interview with Henry Watterson, who was a newspaper editor and member of Congress from Kentucky who served in the CSA army. It is very interesting in that Watterson had utter contempt for Booth's action. I am sure this was some of the same sentiments that Booth read about while hidden in the pine thicket that upset him so badly. This article was from 1887 and it is interesting that sentiment was so much against Lincoln's killer only 22 years later.
   

5. Finally, a picture of Robert Lincoln on his 82nd birthday. I just found it interesting.
   

Heath

[Linda Anderson]

Heath, have you seen the Chronicling America website? Here is the list of the newspapers they have from South Carolina some of which date back to the 1860's and before.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspa...&language=

[Jim Garrett]

A slight correction old buddy. The Presidential box was not boarded up. I apologize for any confusion. Office space was built around the box, which was left intact. The one and only Rich Smyth had found an article relating to this. When the interior collapsed, there was either no attempt to salvage what remained of the box, there was nothing left to salvage, or possibly no one cared to preserve anything. I believe that the wallpaper in the box had been strip out long before the collapse. Check the date of the collapse. It should be 1893. A piece of wallpaper was owned by Mary Ann Holmes Booth (JWB's dear old mom) and she died in 1885. The contents of the box could have been stripped out sometime 1866 or shortly thereafter.

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BTW Heath. You seem to have been bitten hard by the LA bug. It is an illness that cannot be cured, even with massive spending on cures such as books, DVDs, artifacts, etc. It seems that you have already become resigned to this illness.

[L Verge]

Is Mrs. Booth's piece of the wallpaper in the Maryland Historical Society holdings?

[Jim Garrett]

Why yes it is! Extra credit for Ms. Verge!

[J. Beckert]

(07-03-2013 03:54 PM)Rhatkinson Wrote:  2. An article from the 1883 collapse of Ford's when it was used as a government office building. Jim Garrett told me that the presidential box was boarded up but not removed when the government turned the theater into an office. Does anyone have any information about this?
Heath

I flipped through The Restoration of Ford's Theater and could find no reference that the box was not removed. I also couldn't find a reference that it was. I've read that Ford had boarded it up with the intent that it would never be used again before his intended re-opening on July 10th., 1865. This performance of "The Octoroon", the piece scheduled after "Our American Cousin", was scheduled to be the first piece performed since the assassination, but it never occurred due to threats and an order by the Judge Advocate that Troops be stationed there and deny admission to all who intended to attend. The book states - "In mid-August, 1865 Dunbar (the contractor awarded the $28,500 contract to convert the theater to office space), began tearing out the the interior as souvenir hunters went wild. By December of that year, Dunbar had altered the building to such an extent that the Surgeon General was authorized to take it over for the use of the Army Medical Museum." 

My question then is for Jim - is there documentation that the box was intact until the 1893 collapse?

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Disregard. Thanks, Jim!

[L Verge]

(07-03-2013 08:42 PM)Jim Garrett Wrote:  Why yes it is! Extra credit for Ms. Verge!

I believe they also have letters that Asia wrote to a friend?

[Jim Garrett]

Your most welcome Joe. As you may already be aware, Rich is pretty amazing at digging up stuff (pun intended) I usually just follow around behind him like a beagle, lapping up the small morsels he drops. Rarely has this not worked for me!

[Rhatkinson]

My apologies to Jim about the "boarded up" mistake. As with all things assassination related, I defer to his expert knowledge.

I have relayed his tidbit about the present location of the fence surrounding Layfayette Square to many people (especially this week) and pretended that I was the knowledgeable one.

[J. Beckert]

(07-03-2013 09:00 PM)Jim Garrett Wrote:  Your most welcome Joe. As you may already be aware, Rich is pretty amazing at digging up stuff (pun intended) I usually just follow around behind him like a beagle, lapping up the small morsels he drops. Rarely has this not worked for me!

I'd like to see that article. Do you have a link, Rich?

[Jim Garrett]

(07-03-2013 08:59 PM)L Verge Wrote:  

(07-03-2013 08:42 PM)Jim Garrett Wrote:  Why yes it is! Extra credit for Ms. Verge!

I believe they also have letters that Asia wrote to a friend?

I tried to find the letter. I had them burn me a CD for the low low price of $150 of a letter in their files from Mary Ann to JWB written in late March 1865, pleading with her son to mend fences with Edwin. The envelope is addressed to "Wilkes Booth, Esq, Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C." about 3 weeks before the assassination.